Flat & The Curves

Conceived during the pandemic, at a time when theatre audiences were caught up in the Covid closures, there is a good chance that some will not yet be acquainted with Flat & The Curves, the musical comedy quartet that had Norwich Theatre Playhouse audience helpless with laughter on Saturday night, and who thoroughly deserved their standing ovation at the end of the 70 minute show. I was there at the recommendation of a friend, who saw the show at Edinburgh Fringe last summer, yet who failed to tell me (as a single cis-hetero male) that I would be amongst a predominently female audience, and that my gender stereotype would be the subject of much of the evening's hilarity.
 
The first thing that strikes you about Flat & The Curves, apart from their well-tailored and colour-coordinated stage outfits, is their charismatic and confident stage presence. Next, and right from their opening number (which tells of finding a new soulmate in the ladies' loo), it is the quality of their four well-matched voices, and the delivery, that is almost as impressive as the songs themselves. Charlotte Brooke (described by the others as 'she of the Kate Bush face') also provides  musical accompaniment via electric piano and half-size guitar. Meanwhile, the acerbic and razor-sharp lyrics have you hanging onto every word of every song, somehow struggling to stop a stitch from laughing too hard. They have been described as a generation-Z blend of Little Mix and Fascinating Aida, switching from operatic aria to disco anthem within the space of a backbeat.
 
First half highlights include an innuendo-laden song about being 'taken up The Shard' as a surprise anniversary present; an acapella 90's 'period piece' about menstruation, led by Arabella ('Dita von Tina Turner') Rodrigo; and 'Whose IDEA was as it to go to IKEA?', their gutsy, disco-beat paean to domestic home-making turmoil, This was surpassed only by first half closer, 'Another Hen-Do', an inspired and hilarious slapstick musical drama in which the narrative has Issy Wade Wright ('love child of Madonna and Aled Jones') stumbling off the stage and into the audience, and Katy Baker ('voice of Judy Garland, attitude of Ross Kemp') waking in the morning to find a strange man in her bed.
 
The second half has the quartet re-emerging in sequinned gowns, and there is yet more hilarity as songs reference our obsession with mobile phones, and with dating apps, and include a shimmying celebration of the joy of removing one's brassiere at the end of the day. Canine masks, and a kennel-load of clever wordplay, ensure that 'Lovely Little Bitch' is both humorous and thought-provokng, ahead of 'He's A Flasher!', set aboard a number 146 bus, complete with tambourine accompaniment and some riotous graphic actioning for the final 'He's a wanker!' verse.
 
'Grow a Twat', is best described as the feminist answer to those blokey taunts to 'grow a pair of balls', and turns out to be Flat & The Curves' final song. There is no encore, but as a thoroughly deserved standing ovation follows, I quietly manoeuvre myself out of the auditorium before the house lights come up.
 
Even as an ageing single male, Flat & The Curves provided me with to be one of my funniest Saturday nights ever. Out of those that I can still remember, of course.